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WASHINGTON, DC—On the satellite tv for pc business’s flagship present, one of many hottest matters is the rising convergence between terrestrial mobile and satellite tv for pc programs, what one moderator referred to as the “Nice Convergence.”
Throughout a panel of satellite tv for pc firm CTOs on Monday who had been discussing “game-changing” tech within the business, amid discussions of the professionals and cons of vertical integration of satellite tv for pc building and the affect of decrease prices to launch gear into area, 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) was one of many topics that had been high of thoughts.
Bruno Fromont, CTO of Intelsat, mentioned the potential for the size of the mobile market to alter the cost-basis for satellite tv for pc, as a result of mobile standardization signifies that chips could be accessible at comparatively excessive quantity and far decrease price than has been the case for proprietary satellite tv for pc programs–maybe a tenth of the associated fee, he estimated. He says Intelsat has been lively in 3GPP proceedings on NTN, is exploring NTN on an experimental foundation and, primarily based on firm conversations at Cellular World Congress Barcelona, sees a path for the manufacture of cellular system chips that assist satellite tv for pc spectrum.
The CTO panelists introduced up quite a lot of technical challenges that should be addressed, nonetheless, together with spectrum interference between such programs and institution and upkeep of protection that may very well be geostationary-based or primarily based on low-earth-orbit (LEO) space-based cell websites which might be consistently shifting, extremely in contrast to the stationary terrestrial cell websites. Greg Pelton, CTO of Iridium Communications, additionally questioned how a lot of a market there actually is for increasing terrestrial protection with space-based mobile connectivity–between shopper, enterprise and authorities use instances, what number of new market entrants can truly be sustained? Pelton expects there to be inevitable, long-term consolidation of the a number of new market entrants who’re profiting from new setting of decrease launch prices and the power to supply LEO satellite-based providers at a comparatively low price with a comparatively quick time-to-market in comparison with historic norms within the satellite tv for pc business. He additionally emphasised the significance of getting “software-defined” satellites that may extra quickly adapt to new waveforms and options by way of software program updates, quite than requiring new, bodily gear to be launched.
Nonetheless, as a result of every satellite tv for pc system is proprietary, business gamers compete with one another on their networks’ relative capabilities, when it comes to protection and know-how—and a number of other observers over the course of Monday’s panels and displays expressed considerations that standardization and becoming a member of the mobile ecosystem may result in competitors purely, or no less than with extra emphasis, on a worth foundation—which was positively seen as a draw back, particularly for an business used to dealing authorities and protection clients around the globe who’re rather more accustomed to prioritizing making one thing work over how a lot it prices.
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